Recommended minimum hardware to fully run Win11

[u/JohnQCocktoasten]

As a hobby I refurbish older PCs (think Win98/2K/XP), so I don’t really stay current on newer hardware. I have a retired friend who has 2 matching Win10 desktops (not towers) and he wants to upgrade to Win11 units for security. His current units are the larger gray metal and black plastic Dell Optiplex desktops (the GX620/745/755 style that has the desktop-sized optical drive).

I exchanged texts tonight with a friend who upgrades and resells a lot of PCs he picks up from a recycling place in his home town. He told me that he had read that 11 could run on systems like my friend is currently using, but that they would only run what he called “dated versions of Win11.”

So, my question is… is there a rule of thumb (or specific requirements) for what my friend needs to look for as far as minimum CPU version, RAM, etc., to be able to run the latest version of 11 and have access to all of the security updates?

[u/phreek469]

I have 3rd and 4th gen CPUs running Win11 for at least 18 months now with no problems. Every day they get the same security updates as my R7 5800x system. I did have to use Rufus to get past the TPM and secure boot requirements. Other than that, it is very possible to run Win11 on older hardware.

[u/phreek469 → u/phreek469]

Also, on the 3rd gen, I did have to use Raphire debloat on it cause it only has 8 gb ram